1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to registration systems for recording and managing the location of image forming apparatuses, including printers, multifunction printers and copiers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printing devices and image forming apparatuses, such as printers, laser printers, copiers, multifunction printers and multifunction devices are commonly used in large, networked systems. Some large organizations, including corporations and universities, use as many as tens of thousands of such devices in a networked configuration. Thus, it has become important to track and manage the location of these devices.
Tracking and managing these devices has importance in the areas of inventory control and chain management. Also, it can be important to know the location of and usage of one of these devices in order to most efficiently utilize the device or update the device.
For example, some devices are efficient at printing less than ten thousand pages a month whereas other devices are efficient only when printing more than fifty thousand pages a month. By knowing the location of such devices and the location of maximum usages, companies can most efficiently use these devices by locating them in proper locations.
In order to track location and usage of these image forming apparatuses, it has been known to track usage history via a network connection. Determining the location of the image forming apparatus, however, has not been automatic. Thus, it has been necessary to manually record the location of the image forming apparatus in a database or spreadsheet. However, the entry in the database of the location of the image forming apparatus is limited to a physical location of a network plug the image forming apparatus is connected or a room wherein the image forming apparatus is located.
In a large organization, where there can be tens of thousands of image forming apparatuses connected to a common intranet, maintaining a database for the location of each individual image forming apparatus can become unwieldy and difficult to maintain when registering the location of a new image forming apparatus connected to the network, relocating an existing image forming apparatus, locating an existing image forming apparatus to perform service, or finding an image forming apparatus configured to perform a specific function.